UN mission says Venezuela repression was crime against humanity

Venezuela committed a “crime against humanity” with its persecution of dissidents after July’s election, according to a United Nations report.

The government of President Nicolás Maduro used “the harshest and most violent mechanisms” against its opponents, including “mass and indiscriminate arrests”, the UN’s Independent Fact-Finding Mission in Venezuela said in a report published Tuesday.

“The repression resulted in 25 deaths and hundreds of persons were injured and detained for simply expressing an opinion,” the report found. “Among the victims were children, as well as persons with disabilities.”

The refusal of the government-controlled electoral authority to publish proof of Maduro’s win on July 28 sparked nationwide demonstrations, which in turn triggered a crackdown by the security forces. Opposition candidate Edmundo González fled to Spain, while opposition leader María Corina Machado went into hiding.

In the aftermath, the government’s crackdown marks “a new milestone in the deterioration of the rule of law in Venezuela, according to the UN mission.

Violations including “arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence, as well as other violations committed in connection with them, taken as a whole, constitute the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds,” the report found.

The mission called for the government to take immediate steps to end forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and investigate the allegations on the lethal use of force and torture by security forces.